Smart Process Apps: The Next Breakout Business Advantage - A Briefing for Business Executives

The rise of the Smart Process App is not just another platform shift. It will profoundly change how people live and work, and how companies operate. How do SPAs help? They are light weight and easy to change. They assume mobile media (smart phones and tablets). They use big data, analytics and human collaboration to predict events and drive actions. And unlike ordinary mobile apps, they integrate and leverage core business systems. The Apple App Store has thousands of business apps that are barely used. The main reason? They lack a process layer. They do not interact well with existing information and processes. So enter SPAs and a new era of competitive advantage in business. SPAs bring order and auditability to chaotic, unstructured, interdependent and extended processes that are currently executed primarily via email, spreadsheets and meetings. The goal of Smart Process Apps is to improve this messy range of human-based activities. Unlike structured processes, where automation can replace people, SPAs can enhance the capabilities of the people doing unstructured work. And because such work commonly provides the most value in modern organizations, improving unstructured business processes can generate the most competitive advantage today. SPAs support the way knowledge workers actually do their work, how they use their problem-solving skills, and how they make decisions that drive a process forward. Although this book is written as a crisp briefing for business executives, it also includes two technical appendices that provide guidance for SPA builders and IT staffs